Switch TV News Anchor Recounts Life as Police Officer

Switch TV news anchor Frederick Muitiriri when he worked as a police officer (left) and at Inooro TV studio.
Switch TV news anchor Frederick Muitiriri when he worked as a police officer (left) and at Inooro TV studio.
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Making a career switch into a completely different industry has never been easy. For newly-hired Switch TV news anchor Frederick Muitiriri, the transition was a rather brutal one, he says.

In an exclusive interview with Kenyans.co.ke, the soft-spoken journalist explained that he had an innate love for the fourth estate but his ambitions were disrupted after he completed high school in 2003.

"Since I was 11, I wanted to be a journalist. I finished high school in 2003 and since my mother (a primary school teacher) did not have money to take me to college and I did not have any myself, I decided to look for it.

"I went to Kiganjo Training College in 2004 and I got posted to Sericho Police Station in Isiolo where I worked for three years until I earned enough money to take me to college," stated Muitiriri.

Switch TV presenter Frederick Muitiriri presenting during a past event.
Switch TV presenter Frederick Muitiriri presenting during a past event.
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His initial plan was to pursue a certificate in Broadcast Journalism in the evenings while he kept his day job as a police officer. He approached his bosses to help him secure a transfer but he faced resistance all the way to National Police Service headquarters.

He decided to resign from his police force in 2007 and became a full-time student at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC).

"I went to Embu Police Headquarters and trekked to Vigilance House in Nairobi but they refused to grant me a transfer, so I resigned as a police officer," he added.

At KIMC, Muitiriri enrolled for a certificate in Broadcast Journalism before securing an internship at USAID Kenya for a year. He returned to the institution to pursue a diploma in the same field.

During his studies, he was faced with fee arrears challenge after only managing to settle Ksh15,000 out of the Ksh18,000 for his certificate course.

After completing his Diploma in 2011, he returned to USAID  as a volunteer and was paid Ksh500 per hour, and at the same time, he had secured an internship at Ken TV, a content production company located along Mombasa Road.

"I finished school in 2011 and got a contract with an online magazine for three months but I did not like the job... I found another job at a radio station in Nakuru, Hero FM, where I hosted a breakfast show for three months but disagreed with a contractual agreement and left," he explained.

After crashing at his uncle's place in Nairobi for eight months, he got hired by Standard Media Group Limited in October 2013 and his big break came in November when he stepped in for Radio Maisha presenter Anthony Ndiema on Safari Show. Ndiema had proceeded on leave.

"I worked as a news producer, creative producer, news anchor and political reporter. I later got employed as a permanent employee and I was given the Safari show between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.," he stated.

His career blossomed when he got hired by Inooro TV, owned by the Royal Media Services (RMS) as a news anchor, a position he held from 2018 to June 2020 before he switched to Switch TV as an English News anchor.

At Inooro TV, Muitiriri recalls that being sent to cover Dusit D2 terror attack in January 2019 changed his life as he was among the few individuals who accompanied police officers into the building during operation.

"I was covering the Garissa shooting and I was interviewing the parents at Nairobi Mortuary. I also covered the Dusit D2 shooting and it changed my life and as I was inspired to fight for my country. I was among the first people who arrived at the scene and I accompanied police officers into the hotel to do live coverage."

His advice to upcoming journalists is to maintain resilience and patience as he once walked for kilometres to work as an intern.

"When I was in college I used to walk from KIMC to Mombasa Road on Vision Plaza for internship," he recalled.

Below is Switch TV's promo of the new News line up:

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